As I mentioned in my previous drama post, before I watched 35 Sai no Kokosei, I was on a rom-com roll for about a few weeks. I haven't watched any sort drama for a good two years, but one day I was hanging out with my friend Isabel and she mentioned that she was watching a Korean drama on Crunchyroll. That was during my stuck-in-a-rut days and I was looking for something different than usual to occupy my time. I figured, why not watch a new drama for kicks?

I will talk about two dramas today, called Playful Kiss and  Itazura na Kiss: Love in Tokyo. They are basically the same story, adapted from Kaoru Tada's manga from the same Japanese name. It has a Taiwanese, Korean, and Japanese adaptation, released in the same chronological order. I haven't watched the Taiwanese version, and I don't know if I want to. It's only going to be the same story all over again anyway, just with different actors and voices. Same banana.




When I first saw Playful Kiss on Netflix, I wasn't really intrigued about it. It was again a random choice, just to get the ball rolling on the drama stigma. I recognized Kim Hyun Joong from the infamous Boys Over Flowers series and figured this might be one of those cheesy dramas filled with ikemen (notoriously handsome boys), and I thought, why not? I liked him in Boys Over Flowers and I think his acting is... okay. Jung So Min plays Oh Ha Ni, a girl hopelessly addicted to her crush Baek Sung Jo (Joong) since freshman year of high school. I'm being slightly mild when I say hopelessly addicted.

She seems normal enough, a typical high school girl who has a crush on the most popular boy. Ha Ni's unrequited love for Sung Jo is all too obvious, because despite being utterly handsome and smart, Sung Jo's as cold as my butt after falling one too many times while snowboarding. After heartlessly rejecting Ha Ni's confession, he claims he hates dumb girls, and Ha Ni is...well... she falls in that category.

One of the main stir-ups in the drama is that Ha Ni's new house collapses due to a ridiculous reason. In this case, a 2.0 magnitude earthquake. Yeah, an earthquake that hardly shakes any windows. Coincidentally, an old friend of her dad sees them on TV and asks them to temporarily reside with them while they wait for insurance claims and such. And guess who the son of that old friend was? You guessed it, Baek Sung Jo. Ha Ni's appaled whether she should be happy or not, after being rejected by her crush and all.

In the Japanese version, Ha Ni's counterpart is Aihara Kotoko, played by Honoka Miki, and Sung Jo's counterpart is Irie Naoki, played by Furukawa Yuki. A couple differences: in the J-version, their house collapses due to an even more ridiculous reason: a lone meteoroid shooting through their house. In the later episodes, the girl Naoki is engaged to (spoiler!) is not Yuko, whose counterpart is Yoon He Ra, who Sung Jo gets engaged to in Playful Kiss.  It sounds confusing, but watch it so you know what I'm talking about.

There are still a few more differences, technically speaking, but only a few subtle ones that don't really take away the essence of the story.

To be frank, I'm not a big fan of Korean drama for several reasons. I think Japanese actors and actresses are more natural and less fake-looking. They don't look like they've undergone much surgery, if anything at all. I like how their physical imperfections are hardly ever altered (like their teeth), which shows a more down-to-earth facade, rather than the too-perfect plastic-surgery ridden Korean Hollywood. Even though stars are big in Japan, I like how they see beauty in imperfection and embrace a person's natural physical characteristics.

Although that being said, I think they could've cast a much better Irie. No offense to Furukawa and Furukwa fans out there, he's cute but... just cute. Not drop-dead gorgeous like how he's supposed to be portrayed in the manga. How does he compare to Kim Hyun Joong? His supposedly 'cold' expression is just...a blank. When he tries to woo Kotoko, it was all just a blank, serious expression that does not make you want to drop your panties. Why couldn't they cast the strikingly handsome Shirota Yuu? I would drop my panties for him in a heartbeat! Or some other epitome of drop-dead gorgeousness like Matsumoto Jun? Thank Lord for MatsuJun and Shirota Yuu. I'd say Oguri Shun, too, but he's too old. Battle of the Hanazawa Rui/Yoon Ji Hoo. It would've been perfect.

Gif from kdramanmore

Imagine that with MatsuJun of Shirota Yuu. I could die.

Although, in the university part of Playful Kiss, I wasn't a big fan of Sung Jo's permed hair. I preferred his helmet hair.

Parts of the story that really annoyed me though, was how Kotoko/Ha Ni was just a little too persistent. I mean, you go girl, but sometimes get a clue, you know? To go somewhere as far as joining something you know you're going to be terrible at and will just piss the hell out of your crush (like joining a tennis club) could either be classified as sweet or stalker material. But then that persistence is what got her the guy, I guess. I admire Naoki/Sung Jo's patience though. Patience is a talent, not a virtue.

And there's Kin-chan/Joon Go (Yamada Yuki/Lee Tae Sung). Give me someone who hasn't fallen or grown to love either of these two. They are both super cute and are chefs-in-the-making. Twas a good thing shame Kotoko/Ha Ni didn't go for these guys. Wonder how the story would have fared out. I especially loved how Joon Go's uniform was all studded and decked out.



And his transformation! Oh god.

Oh hai durr

Oh wait, no. I meant this:



Yamada Yuki wasn't looking too bad either.

=^x^=

And I just loved his facial expressions.



Bottom line, I personally prefer Itazura over Playful Kiss, primarily because I fell in love more with the characters and actors in the J-Drama. I also felt like there was a lot less extra stuff in the Japanese one, like the weird unicorn dream in the beginning on the Korean one or the kicking-the-vending-machine thing. Itazura was a lot more lovable, IMO, with a lot more funny scenes and expressions.



Overall, it's a good drama with enough oomph to hit your drama spot, whichever version you want to watch. Although Playful Kiss extends a bit farther along the story, but there will be a season 2 for Itazura, which will be aired on September 12, called Itazura na Kiss Love in Okinawa. I'm excited for this just for the Okinawa part!

gif from tumblr

The gist: 7/10 for Playful Kiss, 8/10 for Itazura na Kiss.

Great drama, fun, and will tickle your heartstrings. A little bit of a tearjerker, but with just the right proportions.